Musings on Leadership and Being a Change Leader

When I was a little kid climbing the pepper trees and running through the fields of weeds and dirt roads of my neighborhood, I was the one who always came up with ideas for things for our gang of kids to do. At 7 or 8, I wasn’t what one would call a “leader,” but the kids in the neighborhood looked to me for inspiration. “What are we gonna do, now?” was a refrain I often heard. Fortunately, back in the early 1950s, when we were running wild and weren’t allowed back in the house until it got dark, there were plenty of open fields, trees, and stuff to fill a child’s imagination. Later, in high school, I was the one who came up with ideas for school projects, fundraising events for the Key Club, and surfing trips up and down the coast of California and Baja California. I wasn’t considered a leader, just fun.

Just recently, I looked at the myriads of leadership models and none seem to mention interest-provoking or fun. Louis Cho, in LinkedIn, notes eight leadership styles (autocratic, democratic, transformational, transactional, laissez-fare, servant, charismatic, and situational). There are others, bureaucratic, pacesetting, ethical, affiliative, authentic, delegating, and coaching, to name a few. Way back in the day, people were urged to lead like certain animals. I particularly remember “lead like an eagle,” which was inspired by how eagles rear their young, and “lead like a lion,” being bold and believing in your capabilities.

Let’s be real, great leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and mindsets. My leadership style was to find ways to help people uncover and develop their unique talents by giving them the tools and opportunities to do what interested and excited them. To me, work wasn’t a drudge but an opportunity to be creative, learn, and make good things happen. Work was fun and just challenging enough to make my team feel like they were learning and helping others.

Change Leadership

Some people feel the term change leadership is an oxymoron. Change happens, whether led or not. It’s part of living and a result of experiencing. People experience something, repeat it, and eventually learn it. Then, they figure out ways to make it easier and/or faster. Figuring things out and making them easier leads to change. Nobody gets upset when they figure out for themselves how to make things easier. In fact, they are happy with their changes and the new, easier way. People are creatures of habit. Once we adopt a way of doing things, we prefer that way and are not too likely to want to change… unless we figure out an easier way.

There are two main problems with changing. People think, 1) I’m good at the way I am doing this, I know it, it’s easy for me, and 2) doing it differently doesn’t make sense, Why change? it won’t be easy, and I won’t be good at it.

Having someone change the way you do things isn’t natural. We much prefer figuring it out for ourselves. However, if there’s a problem that is bothering us, and someone comes up with an easy solution, we are usually open to experimenting. If the new way is easy to learn and the solution makes our work/lives easier, we are likely to adopt it. Think vacuum cleaner, automatic washing machines, and automobiles. AND, if we are introduced to something that makes us laugh or enjoy, we are likely to be drawn to it. Think radio, television, the Web. We change all the time. But we don’t like to BE changed.

Reactions to change are emotional. However, those emotions can be calmed when something is fascinating, captivating, or interesting. As a change leader, what are you doing to make the changes you implement fascinating, captivating, or interesting? Maybe you’d get better results if you piqued people’s curiosity and interest in making their lives easier.

The next cohort of the Peter Drucker Graduate School’s Certificate in OD and Change Leadership starts on September 26. Registration is now open and class sizes are small. This encourages high levels of interaction and time for people to ask questions and get explanations that make sense to them.

Nearly all cohort members have an MA/MS or Ph.D. and many years of experience. This is not a certificate program for newbies or students. It’s a course designed for practicing professionals who are working in or for organizations wanting to change. Don’t wait. Register now or set an appointment with me on Calendly (https://calendly.com/alan-landers1/discuss-drucker-certificate-program-in-od-and-change ) to learn more about the program.